The invention relates to a sliding roof for motor vehicles with a translucent rigid sliding cover, said cover closing a roof opening in its closed position, said sliding roof further being lowerable from the roof opening and slidable beneath the fixed rear roof part, and being associated with a sliding headlining which participates in the opening movements of the sliding cover.
In known sliding roofs of this design (German Utility Model No. 1,764,915 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,964,784 and 2,193,607) the sliding headlining is carried backward when the sliding cover is opened but not to the full extent of the opening, the headlining stopping at a point where it can just be gripped by the hand. However, this necessarily means that a considerable part of the roof opening is blocked to viewing.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,175,784, with respect to which the present inventor is a co-inventor, a sliding roof is disclosed in which the sliding cover carries a sliding headlining backward when the cover is opened in a manner whereby the sliding headlining completely disappears behind a stationary frame cover. However, the sliding cover of this patent is arranged so as to only be slidably opened and is not constructed so as to be tiltable in a manner positioning its rear edge above a fixed roof part. Furthermore, in the construction according to this patent, a forward edge portion of the sliding cover is exposed in its fully retracted position and obstructs a portion of the roof opening.
The present invention is intended as a further development of the above-noted prior art sliding roofs. In particular, the present invention seeks, as objects thereof, to present a new approach to the displacement of sliding covers and headlinings of the type wherein the sliding headlining is slidable relative to the slidable cover and jointly movable therewith which will enable the following possibilities:
1. To permit great utilization of sliding headlinings in a manner where it disappears completely from the roof opening to a position behind a stationary frame cover such as in sliding roofs wherein the sliding cover is mounted for upward tilting of its rear edge as well as rearward sliding and/or wherein the sliding cover as well as the headlining disappear behind the stationary frame cover;
2. To provide a construction for enabling automatic disappearance of the sliding headlining during opening of the sliding covering in a manner that does not interfere with manual displacement thereof independent of the sliding cover in a simple manner that is readily adaptable to known sliding roof constructions with a minimum number of modifications and maximum utilization of existing parts thereof.
These objects are achieved in accordance with preferred embodiments disclosed herein which, among other features, enable the sliding cover to completely disappear in a manner which may permit full utilization of the roof opening through the use of an automatic follower arrangement that can be displaced by engaging projections rigidly coupled to the sliding cover or by a displaceable gutter coupled to the sliding cover for movement therewith.
In order to be able to close the sliding headlining by hand if desired, with the sliding cover closed, in another embodiment of the invention the sliding headlining is coupled with the sliding cover when the latter is closed by means of a return device for movement to a position wherein the sliding headlining projects out of the frame covering. The return device can be formed in an especially simple fashion from the design standpoint by a water gutter which participates in the sliding movements of the sliding cover and a stop on the sliding headlining which is engageable therewith, or by a sliding cover mounting frame and the forward edge of the sliding headlining which is engageable therewith.
The sliding roof according to the invention can be designed to a known fashion as a sliding and tilting roof. In this case, the sliding cover can optionally be tilted above the fixed rear roof part at its rear edge, and the sliding headlining is provided with ventilation openings in order to permit ventilation through the tilted sliding roof even when the sliding headlining is closed.
These and further objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become more obvious from the following description when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings which show, for purposes of illustration only, several embodiments in accordance with the present invention.